ACTRESSES are asked to do some arduous things in horror films, like running through the woods topless or shrieking until there’s no shriek left.

But Rodleen Getsic — who endured unspeakable acts while shooting the film “The Bunny Game” — is no mere scream queen. Ms. Getsic, 37, plays a prostitute abducted by a crazed truck driver (Jeff Renfro), who drugs and strips her and chains her inside his rig. For the rest of the film’s 76-minute running time he sexually assaults her; slaps and spits on her; shaves her head; and drags her, in a grotesque rabbit-shaped hood that gives the film its title, on a leash through the desert. There are other indignities as well, but in the film’s most brutal scene the actress is actually branded on her back. Shooting digitally in black and white in an aggressively shaky style, the camera unflinchingly captures it all, while an assaultive metal soundtrack underscores Ms. Getsic’s screams.

There’s no digital or prosthetic abracadabra at work in “The Bunny Game,” unlike that in “Hostel,”“Saw” and other so-called torture porn films. Adam Rehmeier, the director, said that other than drug and alcohol use, nothing in the film is simulated, and Ms. Getsic has the branding scars to prove it. In a making-of documentary on the DVD, released in July by Autonomy Pictures, Ms. Getsic says, “Part of my soul did die in making this film.”

Among horror devotees the film is drawing both condemnation and praise, although it can be hard to distinguish between the two in a genre where adjectives like “sick” and “repellent” are accolades. (Even a positive review on the Horror Society blog called the film “unwatchable.”) Some bloggers have criticized Mr. Rehmeier and Ms. Getsic for being self-congratulatory in their claims about the film’s veracity; one writer called them “megalomaniacal egotists”

While Ms. Getsic’s performance has been lauded for its intense authenticity, the movie’s view of women has come under fire. The Horror View blog called it a “pointless film that doesn’t ask its viewer to directly feel or to empathize with its female protagonist, but merely scathes your senses with as much visual and auditory unpleasantness as possible.” The British Board of Film Classification banned the DVD, saying it “may encourage some viewers to enjoy and share in the man’s callousness and the pleasure he takes in the woman’s pain and humiliation.” Outside the horror and genre film festival circuit Mr. Rehmeier has had difficulty booking a commercial run in the United States.

“We decided to make a horror film but keep the action real,” said Mr. Rehmeier, 36, a Nebraska native and son of a judge, who has a background in documentaries. He shot “The Bunny Game,” his first feature, in about two weeks in 2008 for $13,000. The script was not much more than an outline, with most of the scenes improvised.

“We wanted to have a visceral experience not only for the viewer but in making the film,” he explained. “Rodleen wanted to use the production as this cathartic process, to really purge some of the traumas she’s had.”

In an interview Ms. Getsic described her participation in “The Bunny Game” as “more art than film.” She fasted before shooting started and found herself in a meditative state during scenes. And for the more physical demands of the role she drew on a rape and other sexual abuses she endured when she was younger.

“I’ve had some intense experiences that most people might not have lived through,” she said. “The reasons why I made this film keep emerging. But really I wanted to move through the what-ifs and show that I could make it through.”

Photo

Adam Rehmeier, the director of "The Bunny Game."Credit
Rick Purvis

“The Bunny Game” is just the latest horror film in which actresses have delivered extreme physical performances. French cinema has been particularly bold: Alysson Paradis playing a woman trying to save her unborn baby from a deranged home intruder in “Inside” (2007); Morjana Alaoui, pummeled to a pulp in the revenge fantasy “Martyrs” (2008); and Karina Testa as a pregnant woman menaced by a torture-happy brood in “Frontier(s)” (2008). For Tom Six’s notorious 2009 gross-out, “The Human Centipede (First Sequence),” the American actress Ashlynn Yennie spent a lot of time on all fours in tears while her character was grafted to another person’s anus. She also appeared in the 2011 sequel. (The final part of the trilogy is expected next year.)

At a time when some horror fans consider the genre to be stagnating with “why bother?” remakes and found-footage rehashes, “The Bunny Game” has a precedent in reality-based horror of the 1970s, said Jason Paul Collum, the director of “Screaming in High Heels,” a 2011 documentary about horror-movie actresses that came out on DVD last month.

“Once 9/11 happened, we seeped into this demoralizing sexuality,” said Mr. Collum, who has not seen “The Bunny Game.” “It’s almost as if the fanboys want their horror girls brutalized viciously.”

“The Bunny Game” counts women among its defenders. Although the film is “disgusting and hard to watch,” it’s a “brave piece,” said Jen Soska, whose new horror film, “American Mary” (which she directed with her twin sister, Sylvia) features performers from the body-modification and underground-surgery scenes. It has been acquired by Universal.

Referring to Ms. Getsic, Ms. Soska said: “Those brands on her body mean more to her than shock value. I think she needs to remember that she did this. She went back to that place, and she’s still here.”

Annie Riordan, a writer for the horror blog Brutal as Hell, described watching “The Bunny Game” as “devastating in a good way.”

“It depicts the most horrible things you can imagine but for specific reasons: enlightenment, transcendence, epiphany,” she said. “When the movie starts, Rodleen’s character is dead. It’s only at the end that she comes to life, almost like a resurrection.”

Mr. Rehmeier, who cites Jean-Luc Godard and Dario Argento as influences, said “The Bunny Game” was intended less as entertainment than as a feminist take on “a cautionary tale about drug abuse and taking rides with strangers.” Having never aimed for the mainstream, he knows his primary audience will be mostly fans of extreme horror and “the strong at heart.” For that he sounds almost apologetic.

“I don’t like the film,” he said. “It’s not a film you should like. If you say you do, then you’re really weird.”

Correction: September 30, 2012

An article on Sept. 16 about the extreme horror movie “The Bunny Game” misidentified the actress who plays a pregnant woman in the film “Inside,” another film in the genre. She is Alysson Paradis, not Béatrice Dalle, who plays a different character in the movie.

A version of this article appears in print on September 16, 2012, on Page AR12 of the New York edition with the headline: Testing Horror’s Threshold for Pain. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe